celebrating a literary tradition of women writers

Check-in for Let’s Write Like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Just for Fun

Did you attempt to write like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz? Which of her many forms did you choose for your piece — a ballad, décima, epigram, redondilla, silva, sonnet, prologue to a (real or imaginary) play or a spirited response to a real or imaginary open letter? What was the experience like? Did you enjoy it?

I stumbled around with this and gained an even greater appreciation for Sor Juana’s talent and skill. She wrote in her famous Respuesta that writing verses came naturally to her. Alas, it does not for me.

I tried to write a redondilla. The results were woefully bad. I ended up with awkward phrasing, wrenched accents, and clumsy rhymes. Now I understand why Edith Grossman sacrificed rhyme for rhythm in her translations.

Before I share my poem, I must ask you to remember that our purpose here is to learn by doing. For that, we agree to suspend aesthetic judgements about the results. I offer you my redondilla in that spirit.

Please post your piece or a link to your blog post about your attempts to write like Sor Juana in the comments below. I hope to hear from you.